Jazz Reviews : Weslia Whitfield Finds the Hidden Glow

Weslia Whitfield, the San Francisco singer whose shooting a decade ago left her permanently confined to a wheelchair, has always worried that the reception to her music might be colored by an awareness of her disability.

She need worry no more. Friday night, in the opening performance of a two-weekend run at Tom Rolla’s Gardenia Club, Whitfield gave unshakable testimony to the fact that she has become a cabaret performer of the first order. Equally important, she is a singer who not only tells a story with the dramatic sensitivity of a superb actress, but who has evolved into a marvelously subtle, jazz-based interpreter.

Accompanied by her husband, Mike Greensill, on piano and Putter Smith on bass, Whitfield sang a program that was as fascinating for the light it cast on familiar standards as it was for ability to find a hidden glow in more obscure but equally worthwhile material.

Whitfield’s ballad singing on “For All We Know,” “It’s Over” and “I Should Care” recalled the cooly elegant style of the late Irene Kral--clear-toned, uncluttered and musically precise, but brimming over with worlds of subtle creative density.

She was every bit as good, in a totally different way, when she sang show tunes. “I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say No” (from “Oklahoma!”) was a marvel, beautifully sung and acted. The rarely-heard “Moonshine Lullaby” (from “Annie Get Your Gun”) became a slow ballad, sung with just enough jazz inflection to give it an entirely different, and quite fascinating, slant.

Incredibly, the Gardenia was half-empty for the opening. If there’s any justice, the lines for Whitfield’s next two performances--this Friday and Saturday--will stretch well around the block.